6" woofer cheap at parts express

[StereoInstaller1]

6 or 7 years ago, a guy I knew left some "white van" speakers at my house for me to fix.

I told him what it would cost, adn said "gimme money, I fix"

Never saw him again.

So, now I have these stupid "white van" speakers...the brand name? "AudioFile".

They have 2 8" woofers plus sealed back mids and tweets in crappy but nice looking particle board cabinets. There is also the 8" Jamo (Jamo are excellent, BTW. I have a set or three floating around, 5.1 micro crap) so I think I am gonna build me some kick ass garage speakers, or maybe fix them properly (new tweets, rebuild crossovers, brace and seal cabinets) and see if I can sell them on CL.

Any of you guys care to see a build thread?

Luke

[Jean]

If you plan on using the same stock tweeter, use the same value cap for the high pass.

You can use this online calculator to figure out needed values:

http://www.carstereo.com/help/Articles.cfm?id=55

Stock crossover is 1st order (one cap for high pass in series; one inductor in series for low pass).

Typically a 6" speaker starts to "break up" or "beam" at 2500hz or more. So, with the 1st order that would be your starting point, or even less (2k-2.5k for example) since a 6db slope is very gradual vs. 12db, 18db, 25db etc. But the issue is the stock highpass crossover point for the 8ohm tweeter is at almost 6kHz, because it's 1st order. The higher order you go the lower crossover point you can pick (up to a point), because with shallow 6db (1st order) it can't keep the lower freq. away from the tweeter if the crossover point is low, so the stock one is pretty high.

So, to keep it simple you can even re-use the inductor from the stock speaker to see how it works...and then try other values if needed (partsexpress sells a bunch of different inductors / caps for crossovers). For audio use do not use polar electrolytic caps, use non-polar at the very least.

In regards to a speaker being car vs. home, the difference is in the material it's made out of, since car environment is harsher vs. home. Also, if you compare a home audio woofer and car audio woofer you'll see that on paper a car audio woofer does not have to go as low or have a lower FS (resonant frequency), because you have "cabin gain" working in your favor to boost the lower end. Vs. the home audio stuff that require a box of proper size etc.

[318Joe]

Speakers came in today. First impression: they have an impressive heft, and look to be assembled well. Not that that means anything with regards to sound quality. If they sound as good as they are heavy, I'd be satisfied.

...but for $12 why not? .

Ok, well for starters, they are not car speakers, so while that has little impact on the speaker itself (all other things being equal), Mounting and channeling the proper frequencies to them must be addressed. In addition, the speaker lugs are of the narrow type, like what is used on the negative side of the factory speakers, so some cutting and splicing of your speaker leads, or soldering of larger lugs on the speaker is needed. All this is a long winded way to say they are not plug and play.

First the mounting: These have a reverse lip. Car speaker mounting flanges usually fold up, away from the magnet side, and come with some sort of gasket material (usually cardboard) for backside mounting. These fold toward the magnet, giving a raised steel edge aroung the perimeter on which the manufacturer has embossed "JAMO". Very suave, but unfortunately leaves us no flange with which to surface mount the speaker, nor does the speaker come with any gasket material for mounting front or back. The edge of the stamped steel basket is what would contact the steel of the front kick panel. Its not an insurmountable problem, but it is worth noting. Both of these shortcomings are visible on the photos at the Parts Express page if you look closely.

*correction* There is a flat flange with which to surface mount the speaker, the outside of the flange is just different.

Frequencies: Parts express published specs on their website, 80watts RMS, and 40-3500hz. So I will have to make a custom crossover. I was planing on using the factory tweeters for now. Factory used a 3.3uf cap, and it is an 8ohm driver, so I will start there, unless anybody has already invented this wheel and wants to chime in.

Here they are compared to factory premiums:

[318Joe]

While ordering my sub for Luke's box, I stumbled across these:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=299-914

Now I know just enough about car audio to be killed in a freak stereo accident, but for $12 why not? They should fit in the stock location without modifications.

I'll post a review if anyone is interested. If you don't hear from me, it was the freak accident.